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"he worshipped could not deliver him out of the king's "hands." When the messenger had delivered this his message, Izates replied, That " he knew the king of Parthia's power was much greater than his own; but that he knew "also that God was much more powerful than all men." And when he had returned him this answer, he betook himself to make supplication* to God, and threw himself upon the ground, and put ashes upon his head, in testimony of his confusion, and fasted, together with his wives and children. When he called upon God, and said, "O Lord and Gover"nor, if I have not in vain committed myself to thy good"ness, but have justly determined that thou only art the "Lord and principal of all beings, come now to my assis"tance, and defend me from my enemies, not only on my own account, but on account of their insolent behaviour "with regard to thy power, while they have not feared to "lift up their proud and arrogant tongue against thee." Thus did he lament and bemoan himself, with tears in his eyes; whereupon God heard his prayer. And immediately that very night Vologases received letters, the contents of which were these, that a great band of Daha and Sahæ, despising him, now he was gone so long a journey from home, had made an expedition, and laid Parthia waste; so that he [was forced to] retire back, without doing any thing. And thus it was that Izates escaped the threatenings of the Parthians, by the providence of God.

3. It was not long ere Izates died, when he had completed fifty-five years of his life, and had ruled his kingdom twentyfour years. He left behind him twenty-four sons, and twenty-four daughters. However, he gave order that his brother Monobazus should succeed in the government, thereby requiting him, because while he was himself absent, after their father's death, he had faithfully preserved the government for him. But when Helena, his mother heard of her son's death, she was in great heaviness, as was but natural upon her loss of such a most dutiful son; yet was it a comfort to her, that she heard the succession came to, her eldest son. Accordingly she went to him in haste; and when she was come into Adiabene, she did not long outlive her son Izates. But Monobazus sent her bones, as well as those of Izates, his brother, to Jerusalem, and gave order that they should be buried at the pyramids, which their mother had erected; they were

*This mourning, and fasting, and praying, used by Izates, with prostration of his body, and ashes upon his head, are plain signs that he was become either a Jew, or an Ebionite Christian, who indeed differed not much from proper Jews. See chap. vi. sect. 1. However, his supplications were heard, and he was providentially delivered from that imminent danger he was in.

+These pyramids or pillars, erected by Helena, queen of Adiabene, near Je

three in number, and distant no more than three furlongs from the city Jerusalem. But for the actions of Monobazus the king, which he did during the rest of his life, we will relate them hereafter.*

CHAP. V.

Concerning Theudas, and the sons of Judas the Galilean: as also what calamity fell upon the Jews on the day of the pass

over.

§ 1. Now it came to pass, while Fadus was procurator

of Judea, that a certain magician, whose name was Theudas,+ persuaded a great part of the people to take their effects with them, and follow him to the river Jordan; for he told them he was a prophet, and that he would, by his own command, divide the river, and afford them an easy passage over it; and many were deluded by his words. However, Fadus, did not permit him to make any advantage of his wild attempt, but sent a troop of horsemen out against them; who, falling upon them unexpectedly, slew many of them, and took many of them alive. They also took Theudas alive, and cut off his head, and carried it to Jerusalem. This was what befel the Jews in the time of Cuspius Fadus's govern

ment.

2. Then came Tiberias Alexander as successor to Fadus; he was the son of Alexander the Alabarch of Alexandria, which Alexander was a principal person among all his contemporaries, both for his family and wealth: he was also more eminent for his piety than this his son Alexander, for he did not continue in the religion of his country. Under these procurators that great famine happened in Judea, in which queen Helena bought corn in Egypt at a great expence, and distributed it to those that were in want, as I have related already. And besides this the sons of Judas of Galilee were now slain, I mean of that Judas who caused the people to revolt, when Cyrenius came to take an account of the estates of the Jews, as we have shewed in a foregoing book. The names of those sons were James and Simon, whom Alexander commanded to

rusalem, three in number, are mentioned by Eusebius in his Eccles. Hist. B. II, ch. 12, for which Dr. Hudson refers us to Valesius's notes upon that place. They are also mentioned by Pausanias, as hath been already noted, chap. ii. sect. 6. Reland guesses that that now called Absalom's pillar may be one of them.

This account is now wanting.

+ This Theudas, who arose under Fadus the procurator, about A. D. 45 or 46, could not be that Theudas who arose in the days of the taxing, under Cyrenius; or about A. D. 7. Acts v. 36, 37. Who that earlier Theudas was, see the note on B. XVII. ch. x. sect. 5: Vol. III.

be crucified. But now Herod, king of Chalcis, removed Joseph, the son of Camydus, from the high-priesthood, and made Ananias, the son of Nebedus, his successor. And now it was that Cumanus came a successor to Tiberius Alexander; as also that Herod, brother of Agrippa the great king, departed this life, in the eighth year of the reign of Claudius Cæsar. He left behind him three sons, Aristobulus, whom he had by his first wife, with Bernictanus, and Hircanus, both whom he bad by Bernice his brother's daughter. But Claudius Cæsar bestowed his dominions on Agrippa junior.

3. Now while the Jewish affairs were under the administration of Camanus, there happened a great tumult at the city of Jerusalem, and many of the Jews perished therein. But I shall first explain the occasion whence it was derived. When that feast, which is called the Passover, was at hand, at which time our custom is to use unleavened bread, and a great multitude was gathered together from all parts to that feast, Cumanus was afraid lest some attempt of innovation should then be made by them; so he ordered that one regiment of the army should take their arms, and stand in the temple cloisters, to repress any attempts of innovation, if perchance any such should begin; and this was no more than what the former procurators of Judea did at such festivals. But on the fourth day of the feast, a certain soldier let down his breeches, and exposed his privy members to the multitude, which put those that saw him into a furious rage, and made them cry out, that this impious action was not done to reproach them, but God himself; nay, some of them reproached Cumanus, and pretended that the soldier was set on by him, which, when Cumanus heard, he was also himself not a little provoked at such reproaches laid upon him; yet did he exhort them to leave off such seditious attempts, and not to raise a tumult at the festival. But when he could not induce them to be quiet, for they still went on in their reproaches to him, he gave order that the whole army should take their entire armour, and come to Antonia, which was a fortress as we have said already, which overlooked the temple; but when the multitude saw the soldiers there, they were affrighted at them, and ran away hastily; but as the passages out were but narrow, and as they thought their enemies followed them, they were crowded together in their flight, and a great number were pressed to death in those narrow passages; nor indeed was the number fewer than twenty thousand that perished in this tumult. So instead of a festival they had at last a mournful day of it; and they all of them forgot their prayers and acrifices, and betook themselves to lamentation and weep

ing; so great an affliction did the impudent obsceneness of a single soldier bring upon them.*

4. Now before this their first mourning was over, another mischief befel them also; for some of those that raised the foregoing tumult, when they were travelling along the public road, about an hundred furlongs from the city, robbed Stephanus a servant of Cæsar, as he was journeying, and plundered him of all that he had with him. Which things when Cumanus heard of, he sent soldiers immediately, and ordered them to plunder the neighbouring villages, and to bring the most eminent persons among them in bonds to him. Now as this devastation was making, one of the soldiers seized the laws of Moses that lay in one of those villages, and brought them out before the eyes of all present, and tore them to pieces; and this was done with reproachful language, and much scurrility. Which things when the Jews heard of, they ran together, and that in great numbers, and came down to Cæsarea, where Cumanus then was, and besought him, that he would avenge, not themselves, but God himself, whose laws had been affronted; for that they could not bear to live any longer, if the laws of their forefathers must be affronted after this manner. Accordingly Cumanus out of fear lest the multitude should go into a sedition, and by the advice of his friends also, took care that the soldier who had offered the affront to the laws should be beheaded, and thereby put a stop to the sedition which was ready to be kindled a second time.

CHAP. VI.

How there happened a quarrel between the Jews and the Samaritans, and how Claudius put an end to their differences. § 1. Now there arose a quarrel between the Samaritans

and the Jews on the occasion following: It was the custom of the Galileans, when they came to the holy city at the festivals, to take their journeys through the country of the Samaritans ; and at this time there lay, in the road they took,

*This, and many more tumults and seditions, which arose at the Jewish festivals, in Josephus, illustrate that cautious procedure of the Jewish governors, when they said, Mat. xxvi. 5. "Let us not take Jesus on the feast-day, "lest there be an uproar among the people;" as Reland well observes on this place. Josephus also takes notice of the same thing, Of the war, B. I. ch. iv. sect. 3. Vol. III.

+ This constant passage of the Galileans through the they went to Judea and Jerusalem, illustrates several to the same purpose, as Dr. Hudson rightly observes. iv. 4. See also Josephus in his own life, sect. 52. Vol. is determined to three days.

country of Samaria, as passages in the gospels See Luke xvii. 1. John III. where that journey

a village that was called Ginea, which was situated in the limits of Samaria and the great plain, where certain persons thereto belonging fought with the Galileans, and killed a great many of them. But, when the principal of the Galileans were informed of what had been done, they came to Cumanus, and desired him to avenge the murder of those that were killed; but he was induced by the Samaritans, with money, to do nothing in the matter: Upon which the Galileans were much displeased, and persuaded the multitude of the Jews to betake themselves to arms, and to regain their liberty, saying, That" slavery was in itself a bitter thing, but "that when it was joined with direct injuries, it was perfect"ly intolerable." And when their principal men endeavoured to pacify them, and promised to endeavour to persuade Cumanus to avenge those that were killed, they would not hearken to them, but took their weapons, and entreated the assistance of Eleazer, the son of Dineus, a robber, who had many years made his abode in the mountains, with which assistance they plundered many villages of the Samaritans. When Cumanus heard of this action of theirs, he took the band of Sebaste, with four regiments of footmen, and armed the Samaritans, and marched out against the Jews, and caught them, and slew many of them, and took a great number of them alive: whereupon those that were the most eminent persons at Jerusalem, and that both in regard of the respect that was paid them and the families they were of, as soon as they saw to what an height things were gone, put on sackcloth, and heaped ashes upon their heads, and by all possible means besought the seditious, and persuaded them that they would set before their eyes the utter subversion* of their country, the conflagration of their temple, and the slavery of themselves, their wives and children, which would be the consequences of what they were doing, and would alter their minds, would cast away their weapons, and for the future be quiet, and return to their own homes. These persuasions of theirs prevailed upon them. So the people dispersed themselves, and the robbers went away again to their places of strength; and after this time all Judea was over-run with robberies.

2. But the principal of the Samaritans went to Ummidius Quadratus, the president of Syria, who at that time was at Tyre, and accused the Jews of setting their villages on fire,

* Our Saviour had foretold, that the Jews' rejection of his gospel would bring upon them, among other miseries, these three, which they themselves here shew, they expected, would be the consequence of their present tumults and seditions; the utter subversion of their country, the conflagration of their temple, and the slavery of themselves, their wives and children. See Luke xxi. 624.